Day 120 - Royal Golf

Lunch at the Club today with Guy Riggott and Mike O'Connell to help them understand better what Intelligent Golf is and how it has been implemented at Burhill. We had lunch in the Green and were delighted to be disturbed by a loud round of applause emanating from the terrace: member Mark Britton had recorded a Hole in One on the par 3 18th of the New Course!  He was very generous and treated us to a glass of the champagne with which he was toasting his success.

In the afternoon, it was off for a match at Hampton Court Palace Golf Club.  This was the first round of the Nike Championship Knock Out. We had been drawn away and the only time that we had managed to find to play before the deadline was today with a tee off time at 6 pm. 

It was always going to be tight as to whether we could finish in the light: last year in the same fixture we had finished the 18 holes all tied and opted to decide the tie with a putting competition in the dark...

This time around, our opponents got off to a fast start and were soon 2 holes up. We got them back to level pegging by the turn, but they managed to get ahead again and we lost the match on the 17th hole, by which time it was getting very dark...

Hampton Court is an interesting course: set in the grounds of the Palace, there are lots of deer roaming around. They largely ignore the golfers, but some of the bird life were otherwise minded: a crow pinched our opponents ball on the second fairway...  luckily we spotted him doing so and he was able to replace it with another ball...